Nouvelle acquisition : Vicereines of Ireland : portraits of forgotten women
CAMPBELL Myles (ed.)
Vicereines of Ireland : portraits of forgotten women
Newbridge : Irish Academic Press, 2021, XX-305 p.
ISBN 978-1-78855-133-5
MOND 906
This book tells the untold story of the women who were the faces of the Britisch administration in Ireland. As the wives of the country’s viceroys, the vicereines were once the fashionable figureheads of social, cultural and charitable life at Dublin Castle, in the days before Irish independence. exploring the portraits, papers and personal objects they left behind, this book sets out to recapture their legacies.
Fabrics shimmer, flowers bossom and pearls glint in thepainted world of the vicereines. But behind these genteel images were activists and adocates who, as the studies in the book reveal, touched almost every facet of Irish life. Campaigns to develop hospitals, relieve poverty, promote Irish fashions, and, remarkably, mitigate what several perceived as the injustices of British rule in Ireland, are just some of their overlooked initiatives. The experiences and papers of the vicereines have much to tell us, not only about official Ireland but also about those whose identities are largelylost to history, such as orphans, artisans and the working poor. Often sympathetic but sometimes apatheic, the contrasting attitudes of the vicereines suggest a fresh, more inclusive reading of the British administration in Ireland, as viewed not only through its men but also its women. Featuring studies bu leading scholars and based on original sources including diaries and letters, this beautifully illustrated book brings together text and image to create new and illuminating portraits of forfotten women.